Illinois

Sun, Draw Seem To Shine On Illini In Tourney Tipoff

Get No. 6 Seed, Face Usc In Charlotte

Higher than every Big Ten team except league champion and Midwest No. 1 seed Minnesota. Can't argue with that call.

The opponent: Southern California. A football school. Friday in the Southeast Regional at Charlotte, N.C. Warmer weather, to boot. Applause, applause.

Illinois coach Lon Kruger and his players had a hard time finding anything not to enjoy in the way they were treated by the NCAA tournament committee Sunday.

But then the kid piped up. Leave it to Kruger's son Kevin, a 7th-grader, to find the dark cloud in the No. 15 Illini's 21-9, 11-7 season.

"When Charlotte came on the screen," smiled Kruger, "Kevin leaned over to me and said `Hey, Dad. Your record's not very good there, is it?' "

Whereupon Kruger recalled that when he was at Florida and led the Gators to the 1994 Final Four, they played at the Charlotte Coliseum, losing to Duke in the semifinals. Which makes him 0-1 in the Hornets' nest.

Kruger was 8-6, though, in NCAA tournament games at Kansas State and Florida--a lot better than Illinois' 1-5 NCAA mark in the '90s. Junior forward Jarrod Gee thinks that edge could come in handy against the Trojans.

"We're all aware of what Coach Kruger has done in the tournament," Gee said. "It'll help a lot because he knows what we need to do to be ready. I'm sure he'll do all he can to get us to the promised land."

Sunday night, Kruger said the only thing he knew about the Trojans (17-10, 12-6 in the Pac-10) was the name of their coach--Henry Bibby--and their two best players, both senior forwards--6-foot-6-inch Rodrick Rhodes, a transfer from Kentucky, and 6-4 Stais Boseman.

"By Tuesday or Wednesday, though," said Kruger, "we'll have four or five tapes on them and we'll know as much about them as someone we've played a time or two."

For a scouting report on Rhodes, Kruger can also call on junior guard Halim Abdullah, who played with Rhodes at St. Anthony's High School in Jersey City, N.J.

"We talk a lot during the season," said Abdullah. "When I saw it on TV it was like `Wow!' I know I'm going to get a call from this guy in the next couple hours."

If the Illini survive Friday, they'll probably meet third-seeded Georgia, which lost to Kentucky on Sunday in the finals of the Southeastern Conference tournament. The Bulldogs take on No. 14 seed Tennessee-Chattanooga in their Friday opener.

Duke, the Southeast Regional's No. 2 seed, and Conference USA tournament champ Marquette are in the bottom bracket at Charlotte.

Fifth-year senior forward Chris Gandy, who has experienced first-round NCAA losses to Georgetown and Tulsa and last year's first-round NIT defeat to Alabama, said the Illini's No. 6 seed was something they all tried hard to keep in perspective.

"We were excited, but we didn't want to bubble over with joy," he said. "It feels good to be back among the top 64. It feels good to be a team people are talking about."

One more thing: There's a little revenge factor at stake.

Last fall, the Trojans crushed Illinois 55-3 in football. In Champaign. If the Illini can hold the USC basketball team to 55 Friday, Kruger's chances of evening his career mark in Charlotte would be pretty good.